1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to making an aircraft electronic fingerprint, and to monitoring performance of an aircraft component using the aircraft's electronic fingerprint, and more particularly, to making an aircraft's electronic fingerprint, and to a method of, and system for, monitoring the performance of an aircraft component, e.g. but not limited to a heatable window of the aircraft using the aircraft's electronic fingerprint.
2. Presently Available Technology
At the present time, an acceptable practice is to mount a sensor on an aircraft component. e.g. but not limited to an aircraft window, e.g. but not limited to an aircraft windshield, and to monitor the output of the sensor to determine operating performance of the aircraft windshield. When the output of the sensor indicates that the aircraft window is operating outside of acceptable limits, remedial action is taken. For a more detailed discussion, of monitoring performance of a component of the aircraft and taking remedial action, reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,155,816 and 8,383,994, and U.S. Published Patent Application 2013/0075531, which documents in their entirety are hereby incorporated by reference.
Although the present technology for monitoring performance of an aircraft component by measuring the output of the sensor is acceptable there are limitations. More particularly, and not limiting to the discussion, one of the limitations of the available technology is that the signal from the sensor includes electronic noise from other electrical components of the aircraft, and the contribution of the electronic noise from other electrical components of the aircraft is not factored into or its contribution not considered when acting on the output of the sensor to measure operating performance of the aircraft component. By way of illustration and not limiting to the discussion, the total electronic signal measured includes electronic noise from other electrical components of the aircraft and the electronic signal from the sensor. These combinations can miss-trigger the sensor indicating that the component being monitored is performing outside of acceptable limits when in fact it is operating within acceptable limits.
As can now be appreciated by those skilled in the art, it would be advantageous to provide a method of, and system for, monitoring the output of the sensor that takes into account the noise contribution to the signal of the sensor by other electronic components of the aircraft.